 So I don't know how this is going to turn out. My Milo is almost finishing actually. This is like my fifth take and yeah, I haven't done this in such a long time. But I'm going to try again. Yeah, and yeah, my ugly face is back on your screens. It's been such a long time since I recorded a video and I honestly am struggling to even put together words to introduce a video and do it properly. And yeah, I blame myself because Elaine told me to record these videos so long ago. That's when we arrived. If you follow this channel, yeah, you do know that a couple of months ago we traveled to the Netherlands, came back about a month ago actually. Yeah, about a month ago. And I had to do this video. I had to unpack and share with you guys what had happened there, what we've been up to. And now I feel that I've lost the fire of all the enthusiasm, all the things I thought about to talk about. But let's see if I can remember my experience there and what it meant to me this time around. Yeah, I hadn't been to the Netherlands in such a long time. Maybe even before I go into it, let me just start on a happy note. I want to say happy birthday to the twins and birthdays today. I'm going to record and upload the video today. So hopefully you guys catch it whenever you catch it. So yeah, we went to the Netherlands and if you guys follow the channel, you may have seen our video with their champons a couple of months ago or some few months ago, talking about them leaving Ghana and having a discussion about relocating and all those things. So where I was of the stands that I was ready to jump ship, I was ready to leave Ghana because so many things frustrate you here. It might be nicer to try a new environment and everything. So yeah, I went when I was going to the Netherlands this time. One of the things that I wanted to do was to experiment or we were going to experiment and gauge what's life or the lifestyle is there if we do want to move there at some point. So yeah, that's the lesson. All those are the lessons I've learned. What you hear people post or even family members or friends close to you when you ask them, you know, you want to visit or you want to come and live there and they tell you don't do it. It's too difficult. You know, a brochure is a scam and all those things that you hear. Well, they're not entirely true and they're not entirely false. So what they don't tell you is what I hope that, you know, by the end of this video, you may have, you know, grasped a few things or understood a few things. Because I'm going to break things down from the perspective of wanting to travel for holiday, short stay in Europe or wherever you want to go. It's not just Europe. If you want to go to the Americas, wherever it is, travel has changed. So I'm going to share my perspective and hopefully it informs you about how to go about yours if you decide to do it at some point. So before we left, of course, you know, you have to prepare and we didn't have such a smooth preparation because for one, my passport wasn't, you know, up to date and I had to update it. I didn't do it on time and then there was a delay at the passport office even though I paid for express. I don't know why they put that tag on it. I'm just saying it wasn't express. I paid for premium. It wasn't. So it wasn't even sure that we're going to go because it was too tight and we had to work on the visa process and all those things before we could, you know, of course, travel. Luckily for us, we're traveling on family visa, you know, travel with the family visa because tourist visas are super difficult to come by because of course COVID is still in full swing. It's not leaving anytime soon. So it's really difficult to get visas nowadays for tourists, especially from our parts of the world. Now that, you know, when COVID started, everybody in the West were like, you know, don't call it the Chinese virus and all those things. But Omicron came out, I mean, was not, didn't come out. Omicron, South Africa, you know, told the world about the new variants that they had been experiencing, which didn't come from South Africa because other countries in Europe had already, you know, had it but never announced it. And now they're calling it the African virus to the point where, you know, some German newspapers have it over there, you know, there's not even subtle discrimination is there. So, yeah, the world is changing with travel. So with tourist visas is going to be very difficult. Luckily Ghana is not on the red list of countries that can travel to places like Europe. So maybe you can, but it's still very, very, very, you know, difficult. Even with VFS, trying to get an appointment was such a hassle. So we did get it. The good thing about traveling to another place or Europe with plane tickets, most airlines now allow for free cancellation at any time because you do need that to be a part of the documents that you provide before you travel. And so airlines, you know, you have to, yeah, have a proof of your travel itinerary, the roundship that you come back. So airlines have made it easy for you to call it that if you go and apply for visa, it doesn't work, you can easily just cancel and you have your money back. So that was a good thing. So we had to book. And the funny thing about ours was that we first of all got the appointments very late and immediately was like, yeah, come tomorrow when we finally were able to get it. So I had to, we had to get the documents and everything ready quickly. And then when we did get it as well, you know, in the waiting time before the visa comes, we were super close to the flight time, we literally got this like a day before we traveled. So we just packed and just left. So it wasn't a smooth thing. One thing that I've learned, please prepare properly, prepare in advance when you do get your visa so you don't have to rush through things. Another thing that I experienced while we're in Netherlands was spending, which I should have done before because obviously I didn't also, we're not also sure when I traveled like I mentioned. So spending over there, I mean, your country's currency is not, you know, competing well in the world market. So one is to seven and one is to eight, depending on where you're going, one is to six. So you have to save up and know exactly how much you're spending. And I heard that some banks offer the service of travel wallets, a card that you can use anywhere, depending on the currency that you put on it. And then when you spend, let's say $5, it's $5. If you spend 10 euros, it's 10 euros. So look into that before you leave, get your travel wallets, know exactly how much you want to spend in your holiday. If it's 3,000 euros, if it's, you know, 2,000, know that that's what's on your travel wallet before you move. It's important. I didn't do that. So anytime I bought something, paid something, I would get a notification from my bank. And I'm like, hey, you know, I couldn't stop not converting the money anytime I bought something. So let's now go into Netherlands, breaking it into if you want to stay there versus if you want to visit. Because I did ask a lot of questions, you know, trying to see what it was, what it would be like. If you're going to go on a tourist visa and just stay there, you don't know, tourist visa and just go for holiday, short stay. You don't know anybody there. You have to have proof of accommodation that you're going to be in a safe place that you can afford to be in that place for that long and take care of yourself the whole time. So your finances need to add up. Your bookings need to add up as well. So accommodation, if you are going for a short stay, say a month, it's easier if you're not as adventurous as we were where we were doing city hopping, because we wanted to see how the lifestyle is, you know, in all the cities that we visited to see possibly where we would like to stay if we should move to the Netherlands. So we did a lot of Airbnb hopping. We were lucky enough to have one of Elaine's friends give us her apartment to stay in the first week we were there. So that was a good thing for us. But apartments or houses in Europe in general, depending on where you are, if you want to be in the city, they're very tiny, they're very small. And although, I mean, they come with, you know, almost everything you may need, the water is running, the heater and all those things. It's also quite expensive. So if you're going to book a place, make sure you have it, you know, a longer stay, which is technically cheaper, because if you do short stays, you realize that if you bounce from place to place, you're going to end up spending a lot more. So if you can have a place for a month, it's going to set you off anywhere between 1,000 to an up, 1,000 euros and up for a month. That's the average you will get for Airbnb for the month, depending on how nice or not the place is or how close it is to the city. And if you're a tourist, you would want to be close to the city, so that it's easy to reach things. You don't want to go somewhere that, you know, you have to travel a lot to the city because transportation will also eff you up. That's it. You spend a lot on transportation. Something's got to give. If you want the comfort of being in the city so that you can just cycle or walk to places where you want to be far from the city, pay less and spend more in transportation. Transportation is very efficient in the Netherlands. You have your bicycles, the cars are there, the roads are impeccable, trains work, trams work. All those things work. But if you're going to be commuting every single time, you realize that over time that it's not the cheapest thing, especially if you want to visit other cities, you know, we check them out. We lived in Utrecht and that was our base ground. And we visited people in Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam and all those places. And if you're going to be going back and forth a lot, for example, from Utrecht to Amsterdam, it's 80 euro, 20, one way. So it's a 16, 40 to 16, 50, almost 17 euros for a round trip. And if you're going to be going there five times a week, you're spending almost 100 or, yeah, close to 100 euros. And if your conversion is not turned off in your head, then it means that you're seeing almost 700 Ghana cities on transportation in a week. And then you think that, OK, I'm going to be here for four weeks, times four. Transportation alone, you're going to be spending almost 3,000 Ghana cities or more, depending on the trams and all those things that you do. So that's about moving around and finding a place to stay. Let's go to food. Food in the Netherlands is available, is affordable, if you're going to be cooking. That's why I was suggesting that you stay in a place for long so that you make it a bit of your own safe space. You can cook in your house or your Airbnb, because cooking at home will save you. There's food at home. It's very important. It will save you a lot. Not to say that don't eat out because you're on holiday. You also need to chill. You need to relax. You need to go out and have a few beers, meet people. Even if you're by yourself as a group. Go out, eat out, check out street food, restaurants and all those places. Nice food. But don't make it a thing that you're doing every single day. You will go broke. Because if you compare how much you spend outside versus if you do cook a lot at home and get your drinks and bulk and everything, and your juices, your meals, everything at home, just like you would live. Then you realize that there's a huge gap. Food at home versus eating out. So eat out. Experience the different foods from different cultures because there's a wide variety. There's almost everything there. Another thing I noticed about eating out is almost, no, not almost. All the Chinese restaurants I went to don't take a visa. With money and carrying money around in your cart. They don't take visa. So if you're going to go Chinese, have some cash on you. They won't take visa if you don't have a Dutch bank card. I don't know what the issue is. They only take cash or Dutch bank cards. So if you're going to do Chinese, they don't do visa. That's one thing I realize. So that's about eating out in the Netherlands, moving around, traveling. The cities are beautiful. There are a lot of museums. There are a lot of places that you can visit. Do a bit of your research. Plan your itinerary well. And then know where you're going. If you have free time, take walks. It's nice. Depending on the time you go, we went there in autumn. So it was quite cold, although I wasn't exactly cold cold as even Elaine was. But it was quite cold. So you need to also think about your clothing. If you're going in the summer, then you are, you know, in a good place where you can wear your regular clothes. But even summer is not exactly like warm, warm, like here or humid. So that is also something you should know. So food, transportation and stay, I think I've covered that for your holiday. These are some of the things that you should know. Now, if you want to live in the Netherlands, I was asking questions as a freelancer, as somebody whom I want to move there at some point because where my partner is Dutch and at some point in our lives would want to stay there. So I was asking questions about, you know, especially that's also the reason, sorry, that's also the reason why we were city hopping and doing more Airbnb's because we're checking out living standards and living lifestyles in other cities. So we stayed in The Hague for a little. So we stayed in Rotterdam for a bit. We were in Utrecht for a bit. All those cities that we were checking out what it is. So for me, as a freelancer, there is a lot of opportunities. Freelance filmmaker, photographer, there's a lot of opportunities out there. But there's also barriers to these opportunities. One being the language, one being even the general lifestyle that you have to, you know, get used to. There's also, you know, the one about being native versus being a foreigner is there. Whether you like it or not, you might be so good at what you do, but if you're going to be vying for something with somebody who's a native, chances are they'll get it before you. It's there. It's something you should know. Unless you're applying for something that is minority led and specifically, you know, in your zone. And yes, but there's a lot of opportunity out there for freelancers, especially those who work in tech. I mean, if you work in tech, you can work anywhere in the world. So you can make your money and you can live wherever you want to live. Amenities in terms of water, internet and everything is crisp. So you are good to go if that's what you do. But for me, I had to get used to the fact that if I ever have to live there, I need to get to meet people, form a tribe, find opportunities and build everything from scratch. The creative scene over there is still predominantly, I'm going to use the word white or Caucasian. So, yeah, it's not mainstream media is not very balanced. Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. So if you want to create films, yes, there are grants and available funding and everything. So yes, those opportunities to exist, but you should also know that you have to make friends in all these places to try and find your way around. Do not, I repeat, do not leave your country to another country if you don't have, you know, freelance skills and try and find work there with your current degree or master's if it's not master's from there. And if you don't have work experience, for example, with international organizations you know, if you have work experience with international organizations you find work, I mean, you have experience working there and here you've been in and out, you know, so if you want to relocate permanently then that might be a tad easier than you getting out from here with your business degree from here saying that you're going to say in the Netherlands or stay in Europe and find work from there because it doesn't work that way, it doesn't work that way but whatever it is, I'm saying that find the opportunity here if you're not somebody who can easily find your way around as a freelancer find the work here, apply here, get your opportunities in check before you leave know that when you go, you're going to work maybe the next week or the next two weeks you're relocating properly, like an expat to go and work please be aware of that and even with that when you do go, you still have to now get used to the culture, get used to the people, get used to the language and try and also find your way to belong, to be in there so it's not the easiest thing, especially if you go alone and if you go with a partner, there's also the angle where you may become over-reliant on your partner because they'll technically be the only person you know and are comfortable with so that is also probably going to take a toll on your relationship so there's so many angles to this and when people say that yeah, it's a scam, it's too difficult, don't come they may be right, people have survived but they need to tell you the truth about most of these things that you may face you pay a lot of taxes as far as I know if you're a resident and the good thing is your taxes, you actually see the work of your taxes the roads are impeccably good, transportation, I mean there's trains, there's trams, they're all working efficiently, connected and you can understand why a lot of Dutch people are, you know they make a lot of plans, they are a bit too structured if you put it that way, I didn't know that I'm doing this, that I didn't know they plan their weeks, their months, all those things because if you don't do that and you just are like a desicle about how you do things you realize that you end up spending more, you are running around like a headless chicken you don't know, you know, all those things count all those things count, that's what I've noticed so if you know you have meetings here, social life, all those things they put them in the plans that they know that you're spending this much they have to go here, this is what it takes they factor all those things into it so that they can make sense of such an environment which is so structured and efficient that if you don't follow those principles you're lost, so if there are routes and you are in the grass then you're not moving as fast as everybody else so yeah, this is basically what I wanted to share about my trip to Netherlands visiting or living there or anywhere in Europe I think one thing I forgot is if you're going to be visiting other countries in the Schengen area, you have to indicate on your visa forms that you'll be traveling to other places and now with COVID you have to kind of explain what you're going to be doing there when you're going there but initially you just tick multiple entries and now that's it because now every country will ask you, before I go, before I go yeah, COVID vaccination cards are very important we also realized that it didn't work as in most restaurants and public places that were enclosed will ask you for a European QR code that you need to scan and to be able to sit indoors and we went in the autumn, it was very cold, you know so you want to sit indoors for the most part and you're not allowed to sit indoors if you don't have a European QR code there's a way around it but it's also not very efficient in my opinion whereby you can test, you can do free antigen tests and then you get a 24-hour QR code I don't know if it will change in time where if you're traveling and you book your ticket and you book the time maybe part of the things that they will give you would be a temporary, maybe a one month QR code a European QR code for your stay so that if you're going to be going to places you can easily show and go there I don't know if that's going to happen but it was very difficult going to places sometimes we had to email them in advance that we would be coming and we have a Ghanaian vaccine card is it okay to show up? it's proof but it's not a European one some restaurants are like yeah it's cool as long as you can prove with your passport that this is you, this is your vaccine we're good some places will be like nah we're not really sure so we had those issues as well so that's one thing also to note when you're going so I don't know if it will change but note all these things before you leave both for traveling for short stay and for relocating you need a lot of patience and planning because you're going to be starting over completely and it will take you about two, three years if not five to catch your breath get used to and settle before you start thriving becoming, you know, living your full potential so yeah I was in a hurry to leave but now not anymore not anymore, I have to learn more that I have learned in the last month now I think it's best to visit as frequently as possible if you can afford it meet new people, make new friends acquaint yourself with the environment more before you make the job that's what I would say so yeah this is a video I had to make I hope I captured everything as much as I wanted to do let me know in the comments below what you think if you also live in the Netherlands and you want to add more to what I've talked about please these were my experiences if there's something I got wrong you can maybe give a better perspective as well I hope I did good with my comeback video after such a long time I hope you have a great great December enjoy every bit of it as much as you can hopefully all sign of the year better than I have done in such a long time I have a film to upload yeah I'll do that I'll do that on my other channel I sit down which I'll leave a link in the description for you to also check out I sit down so I'll upload those videos some vlogs that may come maybe more couple videos as you guys have already said their agenda for this channel and yeah hopefully 2022 is a much better year on YouTube and everywhere else on that note I'm rambling and that's it from me I'll catch you in the next video peace yeah let me know it's cold bye bye